Before she was born....

Vera's already 11 days old, so here's some of the background you might want to know about from before she was born:

Her name:

• We decided on the name a long time ago (when Vicki was 3 or 4 months pregnant), and we've been telling people about it for 5 or 6 months since then whenever they ask.   
• Vera is with long "E" sound.  Like "veer", not like "very"
• Charlotte was Vicki's mom's name.
• Hendrix is a nice way to end a three part name, IMHO
• Vera and Vicki have the same initials:  VCH
• The name Vera reminds us of Vera Wang and Vera Bradley, both of whom we think of as entrepreneurial creative driven women.  I think I'd like to have a Vera Wang suit sometime.  
• Some names we didn't use but considered:  Violet, Clare, Kate, Clara, Chistine, Catherine, Elizabeth, Lila, Meadow.  Okay, not Meadow.      

The Pregnancy:

• Was good.  Nothing crazy to report.
• Vicki did have itchy feet, some early-on queasiness, and a giant, giant, giant (yes, triple giant) belly which appeared to be one of those over-sized playground balls that they used to sell at Kmart and Walmart from those really tall metal cage things
• The playground ball sized baby made Vicki's abs very very sore in the final few weeks.  
• We were really debating vaginal vs. C-section for this delivery, until the nurse called with the 38-week ultrasound results.  Vicki played the voicemail over the speakers in the car and we laughed and high-fived as the nurse described the results. 

"Hi Vicki its Nancy.  I think you were calling about the results of the ultrasound from last week.  So they're in....   Now, keep in mind this is preliminary and there's about a plus-or-minus error of 1 pound.  But the baby's measuring about 4200 grams, or 9 lbs and 1 oz.  So that puts her in the 96th percentile.  So that's the result.  See you for your office visit later today."

• You could tell she was trying not to laugh or sound a little surprised.
• About an hour after this voice mail was received, Vicki had a checkup, a conversation with one of the OB's, and Vera's scheduled C-section date, time, and doctor.  Thank goodness for modern medicine and very supportive doctors. 

Vera's got a big brother, Griffin, whom you can read all about on his blog.